How do you get your work experience to do more than make the tea?
When managed well, work experience placements can bring big benefits to your travel agency. We explore how to make a success of it, for all parties involved
From attracting the next generation of agents to harnessing new skills and broadening your customer base, work experience can be advantageous in many ways. In 2023, more than half of the TTG Top 50 Agencies took on work experience staff, but how does it work, what do you need to do and how can it benefit your agency without becoming a hassle?
STARTING THE SEARCH
The first step is to find some keen candidates. Building relationships with local schools and colleges is a good place to start. Many agencies have developed direct relationships with local educational institutions and some agents, such as Hayley Gadd, branch manager of Hays Travel in Weymouth, also visit colleges to give talks and answer students’ questions.
Oasis Travel’s director, Peter McCabe, explains that the agency took part in a pilot programme with a college, funded by local government, that resulted in four candidates on an eight-week placement, two of which were eventually offered employment.
Next consider how many students you can accommodate and for how long. Oasis Travel has supported four students over the past year, each for around five days. Gadd hosts two travel and tourism students per 12 months while Bethany Martindale, dual manager of Now Let’s Travel’s Peterlee and Stockton stores, says they offer placements on demand which have ranged from a week to six months.
Murray Travel’s chief operating officer, Ross Sharratt, explains that some students come for a six-week block during term time, working one morning or afternoon every week. Others might come once a week for a term or, in one case, an entire year.
So you’ve found some candidates, but how to ensure they’ll be a good asset to your team? Gadd says teaching staff generally know if they have a student that would fit in well and make the recommendation. Sharratt adds: “We usually try to speak with the student. Teachers love to answer for them, but we want to hear from them directly.
“We do find quite a few are hoping to be cabin crew, so we give them a bit of a reality check!”
PLANNING THE PLACEMENT
Once a placement is lined up, agents typically need to provide the school or college with their liability insurance certificate. Then it’s a case of planning what the student will do.
At Hays Travel Weymouth, students have a workbook to complete whilst on the shop floor. Gadd explains: “It includes things like geography fact files and the phonetic alphabet. We also get them helping with posters and marketing, and most of them love social media.”
Martindale says students on long-term placements have a “tracker” in place for what they want to learn and what they have learned with questions to complete weekly to follow their progress.
At Murray Travel, students split their time between the sales team and the marketing department, learning different skills.
Sharratt says: “On the sales side, we let them try to find a suitable holiday for a genuine enquiry. They sit with the sales advisor to listen to the customer and the advisor will then suggest they look at Jet2Holidays, for example, and find three options. It can slow the advisor down but the reward is that they soon learn how to do an enquiry.”
Students will also put marketing posts together for social media and the marketing manager will look over it with them and publish it, which they find very rewarding.
It can take some effort on an agency’s part to get a work experience student up and running. So why should you entertain it? Firstly, it can be a great way to recruit new talent. Gadd says: “Our most recent work experience student is keen to apply for next year’s apprenticeship position. It’s great to know that she has a clear idea of the day-to-day role.”
Sharratt agrees. “We grew quickly as a business and needed to recruit. If we can get someone in via work experience, they have done their trial period.”
One such student, Kacie Dick, had a placement with Murray Travel during her fourth year of school and was desperate to work for the agency full time. She says she loved watching the other agents at work and it really built her confidence.
So much so that once her exams were completed, she took on the permanent role, happily tackling enquiries herself, and became an important asset to the team.
Polly Bendall did work experience at First Choice aged 19 when Gadd was the manager. She went on to become an apprentice and a full-time employee. After having her two children, Bendall returned to work for Gadd at Hays Travel as a part-time consultant.
Her recommendation for students looking for a placement? “Do your research. Go into the agencies you are keen to approach and look around them. If you do get a placement, be brave and ask questions. If you are genuinely interested, it really shows.”
UTILISING NEW TRICKS
Sharratt adds that students can bring useful skills to the business. “They are often really good on social media. We’ve recently brought in TikTok and the students are all over it.”
Hosting students may even bring new customers into the agency. Gadd says their students often end up booking their own holidays through the agency and McCabe adds that work experience students are often the children of longstanding clients, so it can help deepen loyalty too.
Ultimately, the key to a successful placement is to have a process the team can follow so it doesn’t take up an unnecessary amount of time and both agents and students get plenty out of it.
Sharratt says: “At first our branch managers weren’t too keen on having students in, but once they realised they could use the same process each time and that we could recruit good people as a result, they could really see the benefit for us and the industry as a whole.”
A teacher's viewpoint
Louise Adams is assistant headteacher at Twyford CofE High School in Acton:
She says: “All Year 10 students take part in work experience for one week in July. Essentially, it’s about giving them an insight into the industry and the different aspects of the company. It works well when employers combine a mix of shadowing and some focused tasks or projects with specific deadlines that develop soft skills such as creativity, problem solving or working in a group.
“It is helpful when employers engage with the school ahead of the placement, outlining the duties and tasks students will be doing, so we can prepare the students to maximise the week. It’s also beneficial if the employer engages with the staff member who visits so we can get a good sense of how the student has done, and areas for them to continue to focus on.”
A college tutor's viewpoint
Liam Plumridge is head of employability for Harrow, Richmond and Uxbridge College Group (HRUC):
He says: “A placement host has to want to develop the skills of our young people and take an active role in developing the future workforce. As a former travel agent, I know how important my mentor was when I went into work at 17.
“A successful placement is one where a young person says at the end of it that they do, or don’t, want to go into the sector because the experience will shape if the role is correct for them.
“The best work experience I have seen in travel agencies is when young people are tasked to do proper jobs. Yes, there is risk, but if monitored and managed appropriately you can provide a canvas for students to thrive.”
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